School of Education Research Review Committee (SOE-RRC)
School of Education (SOE) policy strongly encourages students to conduct research that is determined to be exempt from IRB review. The Getting Started page for student researchers describes important context for completing the required General Request for Exemption Determination form.
Note that in SOE-RRC decentralized review, graduate students in the School of Education work under the supervision of their TLA 651 course instructor in preparation for the AC 653 assessment.
Both the research proposal developed in TLA 651 and the student’s completed General Request for Exemption Determination are independently reviewed by assessors in AC
653. Determination of exemption requires the signature of the reviewer. An SOE Graduate student’s research cannot begin without determination of exemption.
Informed consent, whether by participants or a parent/guardian, is critical to conducting ethically sound
research. Exceptions are very infrequent.
Be also aware of permissions needed from the research site. For example, if you are conducting research in a school, you will develop a letter formally asking the principal for approval. If you are conducting research in a MPS school or in a school chartered by MPS, you will also need district-level approval. To gain MPS district approval, you need to complete the steps explicitly specified for this separate review, which includes meeting associated deadlines for submitting research proposals. Student conducting research in MPS cannot begin research until it has been approved by the MPS Proposal Review Committee.
Did you see:
» General Request for Exemption Determination (student investigators, exempt research)
» Downloadable examples of required informed consent letter
» Examples of Required Institutional Permission letters
» MPS District-level approval requirements
» Getting Started (provides important context)
